PLA Tremors and the Chairman in Charge

I am glad to be able to publish another guest submission from Holly Snape, a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Before moving to Scotland, she was a fellow at the Research Centre for Chinese Politics at Peking University’s School of Government where she studied Chinese domestic politics and political discourse. Her current research focuses on the relationship between the Communist Party and the State.

In this article, Dr. Snape discusses the Central Military Commission Chairman Responsibility System 军委主席负责制, which has been in the news recently as Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli have been accused of “seriously trampling on and harming the Chairman Responsibility System 严重践踏破坏军委主席负责制”.

This article ignores the salacious rumors and does not try to guess as to what Zhang and Liu really did to trigger their downfalls, but I agree with her that it is important to try to understand the institutional perspective:

In the days following the Zhang/Liu announcement, analysts have discussed elite relationships, visual media footage, “inside information,” and patterns of previous purges. They have invoked sweeping political science theories and revisited comparisons to Stalin. An institutional perspective is lacking. Examining publicly available Party and military documents sheds light on what was purportedly undermined. While this won’t resolve the “why” question, it is a basic—yet so far overlooked—piece of the puzzle for testing assumptions and speculating on the question of “with what implications?”

I hope you find this to be a useful addition to our attempts to understand what might be going on - Bill

PLA Tremors and the Chairman in Charge by Holly Snape

On the same day the news hit that Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and member Liu Zhenli had been placed under investigation, a PLA Daily editorial accused the two men of “seriously trampling on and harming the Chairman Responsibility System” (严重践踏破坏军委主席负责制)1. This is largely viewed as a claim of their having “undermined Xi’s authority” or challenged his desire for personalized power.

Put aside whether Zhang and Liu did in fact do any “trampling.” What is this “System”? Why does it matter? Does it really boil down to a statement of who’s the boss? And why should it be factored into calculations about the implications of Zhang and Liu’s downfall?

For Xi, the Chairman Responsibility System (中央军委主席负责制) is a big deal. He has been incrementally building it for 13 years. Over this time, ...